Jean-Paul Arends

"Marjan from Amsterdam writes:
'When I miss just one episode I can't follow
this strip anymore and it really annoys me...'"
"Can't we screen these letters before I read them?"

Jean-Paul Arends is the creator of the popular comic strip 'Scribbly', which was published daily in the Metro newspaper between 1999 and 2010. Arends was born in The Hague and studied advertising and presentation techniques in Boxtel. Arends developed 'Scribbly' in 1994 and by 1996 he started making daily episodes, that he hang on the bulletin board of his school. Inspired by comic characters like Bill Watterson's 'Calvin & Hobbes' and Luc Cromheecke's 'Taco Zip', Scribbly and his friends have bizarre adventures set against the background of a mental institution.

The minimalist style of 'Scribbly' (no text balloons or backgrounds) and its surreal story-line earned Jean-Paul Arends some criticism from newspaper readers, as well as a crowd of devoted fans. Scribbly's first album, 'Ik Hoop Dat Die Ene Goeie Erin Staat', was published in May 2001 and several more collections have followed. Arends has additionally made the semi-autobiographic editorial comic strip 'De Eerlijkheid' with Patrice van der Linden for MYX Stripmagazine. He is also the author of the Dutch slasher film 'Woensdag'. He lives and works in Tilburg.